What’s hiding in the water?

CHICAGO – What some are calling a “mysterious” creature has turned up in Lincoln Park’s North Pond, even drawing curious visitors amid claims it could be an alligator.

However, on Friday, Chicago Animal Care & Control resolved the matter.

While wishful thinking may have led some to believe the city would get a sequel to “Chance the Snapper,” officials said this is simply a “surfing turtle.”

“This is Chicago, you never know what you’re getting into,” said Armando Tejeda, spokesperson for Chicago Animal Care & Control (CACC).

And in Lincoln Park’s North Pond, you never know what might emerge from the water.

“The pictures we had looked like a snout sticking out of the water. It looked like a huge, long body,” Tejeda said.

It was an eventful Friday for Tejeda and CACC agents. After receiving a few calls asking if he had heard anything about an alligator in the North Pond, he gathered his team and put boots on the ground.

“There’s a lot of wildlife in the area, but this was big. This was about four to six feet that (the witness) saw,” Tejeda said. “We walked around the perimeter a couple times, checked the banks, checked the mud to see if there were any drag marks or prints in the mud. We didn’t see anything.”

Then Tejeda contacted the Chicago Herpetological Society. LINK: https://chicagoherp.org/

“They are the reptile experts,” Tejeda said.

Within minutes, the photos provided to Tejeda were… well, debunked.

“It was basically, for lack of a better term, a turtle surfing in the water,” Tejeda said. “It was a large turtle sitting on the end of a log, and it was kind of clinging to a part of the log and with its front legs it was swimming around, and it was diving and coming out of the water.”

Within minutes of arriving at the pond on Friday, FOX 32 cameras spotted a number of wildlife including fish, ducks, and another small turtle. The mysterious creature turned out to be just a turtle enjoying the summer!

“It was something different and it was a learning experience for the people that were with us, and also for some of the new officers that we have,” Tejeda said.

As for the reptile sitting on that log, a Lincoln Park Conservancy board member shared a video with FOX 32 showing the massive turtle she believes caused the commotion.

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the arrival of “Chance the Snapper” to Florida. He was discovered in Humboldt Park Lagoon in 2019.

“I’ve been with Chicago Animal Care & Control for about 10 years now and in those 10 years I’ve probably seen about four or five alligators come in,” Tejeda said.

Tejeda explains that there have been cases where people bought alligators as pets without realizing how big they would grow and then released them into the wild – something that is not recommended.

As a precaution, Tejeda said their team will be monitoring North Pond for the next few days – just in case.

RELATED: ‘Chance the Snapper’ is doing well in Florida after being caught in Chicago in 2019